What are the reasons to write love letters? I thought about this while going over more than 500 letters that my husband wrote to me throughout our courtship. He still writes me love letters when he is on a business trip or when I am away on a personal vacation and he is left home with the kids. I often wonder how he managed to write me love letters every single day for one year and continued writing until we became Mr. and Mrs. Ruffolo. Yes, I'm boasting! I asked him about his reasons to write love letters and here are his answers.
My husband’s first letter to me talked about his desire to make me a part of his family, so he wrote about his Mom and Dad, his siblings, their cats and dogs. The next three letters brought me to his college days – as a young journalism student enjoying sports events and writing about them. He bared his soul to me in those letters and it made me understand him better. This is definitely one of the top reasons to write love letters. He caught my attention with those letters and had me focus on him from then on.
I didn’t really expect this to come from my husband, whose handwriting is – uhm – an irregular, disturbing mix of sloppy cursive and ineligible print. But he said that writing love letters to me improved his penmanship. I am not so sure if he’s telling the truth. Maybe you can try it out for yourself?
Or you can say, "Old habits die hard." Letters remind me that some good old things should never change. By writing letters, I don’t just mean the envelope-pen-paper production; you can write a letter with a Word document and email it to the one you love. It’s a modern approach to a tradition that has been going for centuries.
In a world of instant technology and instant everything (coffee, noodles, you name it), it’s a treat to be able to receive something where the person who sent it actually took time to compose it. I am biased though, preferring a letter written by hand. It’s always great to open an envelope containing sweet-scented paper and reading the awkward handwriting in ink.
Yes it is! It’s that kind of gift or surprise that doesn't need to be extravagant (unless you want to buy gold-edged stationery). When it comes to love letters, in most cases, content reigns supreme over form.
Not to mention a thoughtful way of telling the person you love that you do care. Letter writing is an art. It can be difficult to start but once you start, you sometimes can’t stop. It involves a lot of thinking and as emphasized in No. 1, it bares your soul. It’s a sweet and honest gesture.
They’re never out of fashion. They’re classic pieces of writing that you can keep for eternity. I scanned the letters written in paper by my husband so they are better "preserved" and I keep a folder in my computer (with back-up files in the cloud) to make sure that I don’t lose them. The original copies I put in my treasure box.
Writing love letters takes a lot of work. Some people say they are too busy to write so they just order flowers and buy chocolates for their loved ones. I am not saying that’s wrong. I am saying that maybe you might want to try out something that not many people are doing in this day and age. What do you think about writing love letters?